Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by the Taliban for half a decade after abandoning his Afghanistan post, is expected to plead guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, two individuals with knowledge of the case said.

Bergdahl's decision to plead guilty rather than face trial marks another twist in an eight-year drama that caused the nation to wrestle with difficult questions of loyalty, negotiating with hostage takers and America's commitment not to leave its troops behind. President Donald Trump has called Bergdahl a "no-good traitor" who "should have been executed."

The decision by the 31-year-old Idaho native leaves open whether he will return to captivity for years &dash; this time in a U.S. prison &dash; or receive a lesser sentence that reflects the time the Taliban held him under brutal conditions. He says he had been caged, kept in darkness, beaten and chained to a bed.

Bergdahl could face up to five years on the desertion charge and a life sentence for misbehavior.

#4
Another thing that doesn't add up. Obviously the shooter"meticulously" planned his attack. By all accounts he was neither stupid nor a raving lunatic. So why would he bring roughly two dozen guns - 16 of which were rifles? Even factoring in malfunction and possible escape he could accomplish his goals with less than half the weaponry.

#9
We heard Tank Farm was hit earlier this week. Apparently the outer 'tank shells' were all that were damaged. Inner dual-wall tanks (the seriously thick ones) were okay. Patched and re-painted by Monday afternoon.

System worked sort of as designed as airport outer tank shells are rated to protect the inner dual-walled tanks in case of a plane running into them (but not exploding).

#10
The longer this whole thing drags on without any clear indication of a motive, the more I'm inclined to suspect that Paddock was radicalized online by islamists (ISIS, or whoever) and this was a well-planned and executed terrorist attack on their behalf.

That is my operating hypothesis until proven otherwise and I'm basing it on the evidence we have been given thus far, which has all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack.

I'm also basing it on the fact that the authorities have been very tight lipped about motive and it's been FIVE days since the attack. I find it hard to believe they know nothing at this point. They most surely do, they're just not telling us for some reason.

#13
It'll be interesting to see if all of the weapons had been purchased by the shtbird and if his fingerprints, or others, were found on them.

The additional targets seem to suggest he wanted carnage, but not specifically conservative country-fan carnage or convenient to where I live carnage.

This last bit points me to ISIS involvement (they do persist in claiming him) or the left trying really hard to protect another Bernie-bro that went psycho after half a year of fascist this and racist that 24/7 on the news.

#24
'It gets better: according to Paddock's IRS records, the gunman was not only a legacy millionaire, he was a successful gambler, earning at least $5 million in 2015. Some of that could be from other investments, but most of it was from gambling, officials told NBC.'

#26
The tail number of a Cirrus SR-20 can be traced to Volant Associates, a Department of Defense contractor. Paddock sounds like he may be a black ops privateer. He took numerous cruises, mostly to the Mediterranean and Middle East, too. The arms purchase in St. George piqued my interest, as another money laundering case connected to illegal gambling entrenched the Utah Attorney General Swallow and a businessman in a bipartisan scandal, with a recording asking Harry
Reid to "make it all go away" used to indict in 2014. The little resort area is in fairly remote Mormon country on the Nevada border.

He's money laundering and his compulsive gambling causes him to lose way more than planned, putting him deeply in debt to serious bad guys (Jihadists?). He is offered a way to clear his debt, a mass casualty attack.

The scouting of locations is him stalling for time. Which he eventually runs out of, and he is forced by the bad guys to act.

#30
I believe he was expecting a different outcome after the first 10 minute volley. Since he had never done something as hideous as this, he brought in as many weapons as he could as a security blanket when he was not under the influence.

When the expected post fire fight never materialized with police (the SWAT people simply isolated the area but stayed back after the shooting stopped) and possibly because he got wasted in order to get the nerve to do this, he ended up committing suicide sometime during the event because of drunken mood swings that would occur after the massacre he just committed.

I do think he was influenced by the flame throwing media against traditional Americans. I also think he was competing with his father, who was once on the 10 most wanted FBI list nationally.

#31
He's money laundering and his compulsive gambling causes him to lose way more than planned, putting him deeply in debt to serious bad guys

Interesting. Years ago story made the rounds about a mysterious horse track gambler in Pennsylvania who was dubbed Mr. Saturday Night. This individual showed up occasionally, placed big bets that always seemed to be winners, then would disappear for some length of time. It was opined that Mr. Saturday Night was what is called in mob parlance a "bridge jumper," a bagman who was betting other people's money and would have no recourse but to jump off a bridge - commit suicide - if the bet was lost.

[RT] Russia’s Federal Security Service... the successor to the KGB... (FSB) has confirmed the discovery of the remains of notorious terrorist Doku Count Doku Umarov... Late self-styled first emir of the Caucasus Emirate. Count Doku announced that his forces will not target civilians, but qualified that statement by saying there aren't any civilians in Russia. Then the Russians killed him..., who criminal masterminded several deadly attacks on civilian targets and was killed in 2013.

"As a result of targeted long-term operational search activities, the Federal Security Service has discovered the burial site of the leader of the North Caucasian criminal gang, Doku Umarov, and four members of his gang in the mountain-wooded area in the Russia’s Republic of Ingushetia," the FSB said in a statement on Wednesday.

Umarov and his associates "were eliminated during the special operation of the security forces in September 2013," the statement added.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, in a post on Telegram, welcomed the discovery of Umarov’s remains.

"The elimination of Doku Umarov became the key moment in the fight against terrorism in the North Caucasus. It broke the back of international terrorists. I’m sure that international terrorism will never raise its head in our republic or in our region," Kadyrov wrote.

Umarov headed the Caucasus Emirate Death Eater group, which closely cooperated with Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIS) and al-Qaeda.

He was on the wanted list of Russia, the US, and the UN Security Council for organizing multiple acts of terrorism, kidnapping, contract murder, and other serious crimes in Russia.

The Chechen Islamist participated in a terrorist attack in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia in 1999, when Death Eaters managed to seize over a dozen villages.

Umarov took responsibility for several acts of terrorism in Russia, including attacks on the Nevsky Express passenger train, the Moscow Metro, and Domodedovo Airport.

An kaboom on the Nevsky Express high speed train, travelling between Moscow and St. Petersburg, claimed the lives 27 people and injured around a hundred on November 27, 2009.

[REUTERS] The United States is preparing to lift decades-old economic sanctions against Sudan, citing improvement on human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... and progress on counter-terrorism, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

President Donald Trump...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...’s administration is expected to announce its decision as early as Friday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity... for fear of being murdered...Shortly before leaving office, former President Barack ObamaReady to Rule from Day One... temporarily eased penalties that had been in place for 20 years against the African nation. In July, the Trump administration postponed for three months a decision on whether to remove the sanctions completely, setting up an Oct. 12 deadline.

Lifting the sanctions, which is opposed by some human rights advocates, will suspend a trade embargo, unfreeze assets and remove financial restrictions that have hobbled the Sudanese economy.

[AnNahar] The number of illegal migrants colonists leaving Libya for Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...has fallen by 20 percent so far in 2017, the European naval force charged with stopping people trafficking in the Mediterranean said Thursday.

"We have seen a drop in the number of people leaving Libya for Europe this year, around 20 percent," Enrico Credendino, commander of the force, told a news conference aboard the Cantabria ship at the port of La Goulette, near Tunis.

Summer saw a drop of 75 percent compared with the same period in 2016, with the number dying at sea falling by 60 percent, said the head of the EU's anti-trafficking operation dubbed Sophia.

The decrease was explained in particular by the support given to the Libyan coastguard, which received four Italian patrol boats and training.

"With the training we have done, they are now able to more effectively patrol territorial waters, fight all types of crime and also save lives," the commander said.

[AnNahar] Somali refugees are fleeing war, cholera and hunger in Yemen, the United Nations...an idea whose time has gone... said Thursday, with 10,000 expected to return home to a country they escaped over conflict and poverty.

Somalis make up 91 percent of refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen, with the United Nations reporting some 256,000 Somalis based in camps in the war-torn country.

Thousands have headed to Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...since the start of 2017, despite a conflict in the Arabian Peninsula country that has killed thousands and a cholera outbreak threatening nearly one million people.

But up to 10,000 Somali refugees are now trying to flee Yemen, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

Two boats chartered by UNHCR and the U.N. migration agency IOM have already left Yemen's port of Aden for the Somali port of Berbera, most recently on Sunday.

A third vessel may also depart later this month, UNHCR said, on a journey of 16 to 18 hours.

"In total, 284 Somali refugees have returned from Yemen already in the past three weeks," UNHCR's Yemen spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said Thursday.

"This is an ongoing process and full funding to support the process is yet to be received. So the return program will continue over 2018 as well," she told AFP.

While Somali refugees in Yemen largely hail from southern Somalia and the northwestern region of Woqooyi Galbeed, most returnees are heading to the capital Mogadishu, the target of a deadly bombing last month.

Access to food, shelter and medicine remains a challenge in Somalia, which has been torn by decades of conflict and ranks second on the 2017 fragile states index.

Since 2007, Shabaab jihadists have been fighting to overthrow the African country's internationally backed government, repeatedly attacking both civilian and military targets.

The Yemen conflict has claimed the lives of more than 8,500 people since 2015, when an Arab military coalition led by Soddy Arabia...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... joined the government's fight against a rebel alliance.

The war has pushed 17 million people to the brink of famine, in what the United Nations this year called the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world."

Yemen is also facing port and airport blockades and a cholera outbreak that the International Committee of the Red Thingy estimates has killed more than 2,100 people since April.

IOM estimates around 55,000 migrants colonists have left the Horn of Africa headed for Yemen since the start of the year, many of them from Somalia.

In August, at least 56 Somali and Æthiopian migrants colonists drowned when a human smuggler forced them into choppy Arabian Sea waters before reaching the Yemen coast.

[NEWS.XINHUANET] Qatar...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... and the United States are holding a workship on fighting terror financing as part of their joint efforts to combat terrorism, local media reported Thursday.

The two-day technical exchange workshop on Domestic Designation opened on Wednesday, in line with the efforts by Qatar to establish an integrated and operational system for domestic designation, the reports said.

The opening session was chaired by Chairman of Qatar's National Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Committee Sheikh Fahad bin Faisal Al Thani, and attended by legal experts, law enforcement officials and technicians at all levels.

U.S. officials from the Justice and State departments would exchange technical information and expertise with Qatari counterparts on anti-money laundering and combating terror funding, the reports said.

Sheikh Fahad mentioned that the workshop aimed at providing technical assistance and exchanging experiences between Qatar and the U.S. in the Domestic Designation system.

He also said that a workship was held last week already with the participation of experts from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on financial investigations.

The latest workshop was held under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on combating terrorism financing signed in July between Qatar and the U.S. Qatar was the first country to sign an executive programme with Washington to fight terrorism.

On July 11, Qatar and the U.S. signed the MoU on combatting terrorism and its financing during the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Doha.

[Breitbart] Authorities claim the Marseille failed asylum seeker terror attacker Ahmed Hanachi picked up 2,000 euros shortly before he killed two young women in front of a train station on Sunday, fueling speculation about his motives.

Authorities claim the Marseille failed asylum seeker terror attacker Ahmed Hanachi picked up 2,000 euros shortly before he killed two young women in front of a train station on Sunday, fueling speculation about his motives.

Police have questioned why Hanachi received the money leading to speculation the payment may have had something to do with the attack that killed two girls on Sunday.

A source close to the investigation said that police believe "nothing at this time indicates that these sums were given for committing his crimes". The man was a known small-time criminal having been tossed in the clinkMaw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! over a dozen times since entering the country, L’Express reports.

Police are still investigating the motive for the brutal attack saying that whilst Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... has grabbed credit for the incident, police are still working on finding more concrete links between the 29-year-old Tunisian and the terror group.

[AnNahar] Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said Thursday a probe into the young Tunisian who stabbed to death two women in the French city of Marseille had uncovered no links to terrorist groups

"The investigation is underway and we do not really have links today or proof of any ties when this person was in Tunisia with terrorist groups or ISIS," he told news hounds after talks with his French counterpart Edouard Philippe, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.

IS grabbed credit for last Sunday's attack in Marseille, saying the assailant, 29-year-old Ahmed Hanachi who stabbed to death two young women before being rubbed out, was one of its "soldiers."

"We were also shocked in Tunisia as we were also victims of three terrorist attacks in 2015 and we as a society are completely opposed to these terrorist groupings," the Tunisian premier said.

The assailant's friends and family members in Tunisia have dismissed any notion that he was motivated by jihadist aims, depicting him as a heavy drug user who had lost his way.

According to his father, Noureddine Hanachi, he left Tunisia for Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...at the age of 17 but often visited the family home in Bizerte, north of Tunis.

[AlAhram] Ottoman Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 133 people working in the finance and labour ministries, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Thursday, as part of a widening crackdown following last year's failed coup attempt.

The suspects were detained for allegedly using ByLock, an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by the network of U.S.-based holy manFethullah Gulen... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world..., blamed by Ankara of orchestrating last July's abortive putsch.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies involvement.

Anadolu said 101 of the suspects were from the finance ministry and 32 from the labour ministry. It said two of the suspects from each ministry were active workers.

Since then more than 50,000 people have been incarceratedMaw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! pending trial over links to Gulen, while 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors.

[Ynet] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....'s state-run news agency...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... says security forces have killed five suspected Kurdish gunnies in an operation close to a tourist resort near the Mediterranean coast.

Anadolu Agency said a group of seven suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, were located Thursday in a forest area in the town of Koycegiz, north of the resort of Marmaris. Five were killed in a joint operation by police and the gendarmerie while two gunnies escaped.

The operation came as Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that the Kurdish bully boys, who infiltrate from Iraq and Syria by land for attacks, were trying to reach Turkey's Mediterranean coast by sea from the Syria's coastal Latikia region. The PKK is waging a three-decade long insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people.

[NEWS.XINHUANET] The United States Embassy in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... on Thursday slammed the arrest by Ottoman Turkish authorities of Istanbul consulate staff, saying that Washington "is deeply disturbed by the arrest."

The employee, identified only by Metin Topuz, was remanded in jug by an Istanbul court late Wednesday on accusations of links to the group of U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world..., blamed by Ankara for last year's failed coup attempt.

"The United States government is deeply disturbed by the arrest of a locally-employed staff member of the U.S. Consulate General Istanbul on October 4, " the U.S. embassy said in a statement.

The employee with Ottoman Turkish nationality was charged with "political and military espionage" and "attempting to remove the constitutional order," according to Anadolu Agency.

[DPA-INTERNATIONAL] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... said Thursday that soon the airspace and borders to the Iraqi Kurdish region will be shut as part of the fallout from the region's recent vote for independence.

"Now, all the air spaces will also be shut down; flights have already been banned. Who will come, how are you going to leave? Soon borders will be closed too. How are you going to go in and out?" Erdogan said in televised remarks from a meeting with community leaders in Ankara.

"This is not over, it has only started," Erdogan said in an escalation of rhetoric, noting that the Iraqi Kurdish region is surrounded by Iran, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...., Syria and Iraq itself. The neighbours are concerned their own Kurdish minorities could seek to break away.

Baghdad and Ankara have imposed a ban on international flights to and from Kurdistan's airports as part of the backlash. The Kurds called the move "collective punishment." Baghdad said the flights would resume if the central government assumes control of the airports.

Erdogan was in Iran on Wednesday and both sides stressed their opposition to the referendum held last month, which was also rejected by world powers, including the United States.

[Ynet] Al-Arouri, in charge of Hamas' military wing in W. Bank, is appointed dep. head of Hamas' political bureau; last June, al-Arouri and other Hamas officials were forced to leave Qatar as part of Gulf states diplomatic crisis, after US exerted pressure on Qatar to oust them.

Senior Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", official Saleh al-Arouri, who is in charge of the organization's military wing in the West Bank, was officially appointed deputy head of the Hamas political bureau in the Gazoo Strip on Thursday. The appointment makes al-Arouri Hamas' second-in-command in the terrorist group turned political party, after Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank..., who serves as head of its political bureau.
Continued on Page 49

[Ynet] Though PA and Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", seemed to be moving toward a reconciliation earlier in the week, the situation remains precarious, with PA Pres. Abbas stating he will not tolerate illegal weapons in Gazoo, and Hamas demanding agreement with Israel before dismantling its military wing.

More Hamas demands are listed at the link, though the details don't really matter -- the game has been played out before.

Around 90 percent of Syria’s territory has been liberated from terrorist groups, Andrey Novikov, the head of the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center, told Sputnik.

“According to the estimates of the military, 90 percent of Syria’s territory has been freed of terrorist groups, which is a very positive result,” Novikov said.

In early September, the Syrian government troops, backed by Russian airstrikes, broke a three-yearISIL blockade to the west and south of Deir ez-Zor.

On Monday, the Syrian Army crossed the Euphrates River with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces near Deir ez-Zor, dislodging militants from a number of settlements, and are currently developing an offensive eastward.

“Relocation of significant Daesh forces from Syria to Iraq to the territory of Waziristan (Pakistan) with further redistribution observed since the fall of 2016. In other words, resolution of military and political tasks in Syria lowers the number of armed radical individuals physically on one hand, but on the other it forces ISIL to not only change their tactics but also the geography of upcoming activities,” Novikov said, referring to Arabic acronym of ISIL.

“The majority of terrorists will return to their origin countries, or go to other states (both CIS and the European Union) via the routes they used to leave for conflict zones. In practice, this means using connecting flights from Turkey to airports of Commonwealth’s [CIS] cities. Special research shows that the Balkan route is especially in demand,” the head of the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center added.

According to Novikov, Hungary and Poland are also used as transit countries, as well as Romania and Switzerland to a lesser extent.

“A new model of extremism is exported from combat zones to Central Asian nations, it was modernized technologically and tactically, adapted to the specifics of the multinational composition of participants,” Novikov added.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.